story8922.xml

story8922.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-01-04

I was working in the computer labs of the University of Memphis. I arrived at work around eight in the morning, central time. Right after I got in and was checking my systems, one of the other lab technicians who was not working that day came running into the lab and grabbed the phone. He was pretty frantic but I overheard him say a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Curious I tried to connect to one of the major news web sites, but they were bogged down. The other guy working in the lab was from India and knew an Indian website that channel the BBC. We got the live feed up and started watching while listening to the feed on headphones. As it progressed, a lot of the silently working students became aware and finally we turned on one of the large display screens and put up the feed for everyone to see. That was right when the second plane hit. The computer lab was designed to hold about eighty students but there were several hundred in there now, watching in silence.